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From: <>
Subject: Re: Trivia: Fall guy
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1999 23:08:06 EDT


In a message dated 06/03/99 11:29:58 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
writes:

<< Wasn't PTB known for saying "There's a sucker born every minute"??

shirley
>>

My _QPB Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins_ states that both "There's a
sucker born every minute" and "Never give a sucker an even break" have both
been attributed to P.T. Barnum, however there is no recorded instance of him
using either expression. If P.T. did not coin them, he certainly lived by
that principle. Both must be attributed to good old Anonymous! It also went
on to say that P.T. Barnum did coin or help popularize the terms "Jumbo,"
"Bandwagon," "Siamese Twins," "the Bearded Lady," "the Wild Man of Borneo,"
"Swedish Nightingale," "Tom Thumb," "Three-Ring Circus," and the "Greatest
Show on Earth."

Regards,
Kathy Smit

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